A crime thriller with a good helping of voodoo thrown in. Based in and around New York, a police officer and his FBI colleague investigate the murder of a friend by someone declared dead a few days previously.

The chapters are short, the action is fast, there's a light sprinkling of humour, it's very easy to read.

Apparently there's a series based on the FBI character, Pendergast. This is my first time reading from this collection and it was completely self contained, so it seems you could dip in anywhere.

The characters are quite ethereal, no depth whatsoever. It's all about pace and plot. And the narrative voice is quite sterile. Perhaps 'efficient' would be a more accurate, and kinder, word. Like a scalpel, which is both sterile and efficient, cutting to the meat of the story with no fuss.

Not a future classic then but a good holiday read for when you're sat under a palm, sipping a tequila sunrise and occasionally squinting through the heat haze to the far blue horizon. (Yes, I'm sick of winter!)

Read it when you have a chance. Let me know what you think.